Hannah Duplechain (16) prepares to send a ball down field to her Hannan teammates. (Pat Mashburn, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

On the surface, 10th-seeded Hannan’s 5-0 win over No. 23 Haynes at home in the bi-district round of the Division III girls soccer playoffs was one they were supposed to get based on seedings. However, in just its third season of existence, Hannan (11-6-3) recorded the first postseason victory in school history.

The reward is another round of the playoffs, this time on the road at No. 7 Newman, which defeated West Feliciana 6-0. It was a far different feeling than last season’s playoff when the Hawks lost 2-1 in a shootout against Northlake Christian.

“It’s exciting for the girls, especially since we’re a third-year program,” Hannan Coach Jerry Kennedy said. “We kept the pressure on and maintained control. Now we have to turn our attention to the next round. Newman has a couple of nice players that we’ve got to figure out how to stop. They’re a strong team, and we have to really work on our attack.”

Four different Hannan players scored all five goals in the first half, including two from Maddie Hipps, Katie Dittman, Gina Mejia, and Megan Riley.

“The win feels really good because we all worked very hard,” Dittman said. “At first everyone was a little nervous, but everyone did well. I think it was just the first round playoff jitters, because if you lose, you go home. We’ve been practicing a lot at the midfield, and Gina dropped it back, and I scored.”

Dittman’s goal gave Hannan 2-0 lead in the 14th minute a little more than six minutes after the first of two goals from Hipps.

Mejia increased the lead to 3-0 four minutes later with the attack working to near perfection as the team possessed the ball for most of the first half near Haynes’ goal. After a heartbreaking defeat in last season’s first round, there was no easing the foot off of the gas pedal.

“Much of our strategy was to communicate as much as possible and keep passing the ball,” Mejia said. “We also wanted to pass it back to our midfield, something we worked a lot on in practice.”

The odds may have been in Hannan’s favor, but that still didn’t deter the Yellow Jackets from mounting a brave front.

“We wanted to play a defensive game because we knew that were talented offensively,” Haynes Coach Chris Totaro said. “We didn’t want the game to get away from us. With three defensive starters sitting on the bench due to injuries, it was something we’d thought about.”